Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warned that Brazil would respond with “reciprocity” if U.S. President Donald Trump decides to impose tariffs on Brazilian products.
“It’s very simple. If he taxes Brazilian products, there will be reciprocity in Brazil when it comes to taxing products imported from the U.S.,” he said, noting that he expects “Trump to respect Brazil.”
“I’m not worried if he’s going to fight over Greenland, the Gulf of Mexico, or Panama. What he needs to do is respect the sovereignty of other countries,” said the Brazilian leader, who reiterated his desire to strengthen cooperation with the U.S., Brazil’s number two trade partner after China.
“For my part, I want to improve that relationship,” Lula said, emphasizing that his country is interested in exporting and importing more if necessary.
Recently, Trump called Brazil a “tremendous tariff creator” and accused it of trying to harm the U.S. economy. “We will impose tariffs on countries that really want to harm us. They want to harm us, even though they basically want to do good for their country. Look at what others are doing: China is a tremendous tariff creator, India, Brazil, and so many other countries,” the U.S. President said.
China, India, and Brazil are three of the countries that make up the BRICS forum of emerging economies, along with Russia, South Africa, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Iran, and Indonesia.
Lula hopes to meet with the Republican leader at the next G7 summit if invited, or during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Deportees
Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the creation of a working group with the US Embassy in Brasília to exchange information on deported Brazilians and the operation of deportation flights. According to the ministry, the measure aims to guarantee “the safety and dignified and respectful treatment of passengers.”
The plan is to immediately establish a direct line of communication between the members of the group and allow for real-time monitoring of upcoming flights.
The proposal to create a working group had been discussed at a meeting between Lula and his ministers at the Planalto presidential palace, when the Brazilian government announced that it would set up a humanitarian reception post at Confins International Airport, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state, to receive Brazilians deported from the USA. The location was chosen because it is the terminal to which flights chartered by the US government have been destined over the last few years.
Brazil’s mobilization comes days after a deportation flight carrying 88 Brazilians suffered a series of problems, with passengers being handcuffed the entire time, reports of aggression on the part of US agents, deprivation of food and access to toilets, as well as technical problems that impaired the functioning of the air conditioning and forced the aircraft to make unscheduled stopovers.
The Secretary for Brazilian Communities Abroad and Consular and Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Márcia Loureiro, met with the chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy in Brazil, Gabriel Escobar, to discuss the deportation of Brazilians. Summoning the American authority in this case is a diplomatic gesture that expresses one country’s discontent with another.
